


Rehlia's AU Headcanon Corner

by Rehlia



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Swapfell, Alternate Universe - Underfell, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Flavor Text Narrator Chara, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-05-21 13:12:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14916023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehlia/pseuds/Rehlia
Summary: A collection of my headcanons for how different Undertale AUs work.





	1. Underswap

**Author's Note:**

> This is a [crosspost from Tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/post/159123497160/underswap-headcanons) mostly for my own reference, to be honest, because sometimes stuff can be easier for me to find and read on AO3 than on Tumblr. But feel free to peruse, comment, discuss, or use for your own with credit. Fair warning, I might change stuff sometimes or refine/reword parts.

Basically, I noticed two main things: I strongly prefer if only the general roles and most general attitudes of the characters are swapped, while their individual preferences and relationships stay mostly the same, and I also dislike some of the common/popular swaps that just don’t make sense to me. So I changed those freely. I also made some changes to how the Underground would look/how the regions would look like and what would be there. Some of the history would also be different in my version. For the characters in general, I tried to follow canon as closely as possible and where I needed new nicknames or items, I went to the wiki to see if there were unused ones I could utilise. 

**_The Differences in Story_ **

The one thing that starts all the changes is that Frisk was born in Chara’s place and Chara was born in Frisk’s place. With Frisk as the second Dreemurr child, Toriel ended up following her own plan after they and Asriel died, wanting to kill the next human in order to use that soul to go to the surface and collect six more. With her stronger personality, she rallied the Underground behind her and Asgore exiled himself to the ruins because he felt her plan was too brutal and direct, fearing that a direct attack on six humans would cause a war they could not win. He went to the ruins and did everything he could to prevent the next humans who fell from leaving the ruins, accidentally killing them all and shattering their souls. The Underground has seen no other human since Frisk fell and there are no souls waiting in Toriel’s castle.

Chara will not be able to find new equipment in the Underground until they reach the castle, where the heart locket and heavy stick wait for them. The only way to get a Full Pacifist route is to listen to Frisk’s advice, sacrifice Chara’s soul to Toriel, and allow her to go through with her plan of leaving the Underground to collect six more souls. After she returns, Flowey will steal those souls and absorb all monster souls in the Underground to revive Chara and Frisk and keep playing with them forever. Only then will he regain his conscience, shatter the barrier, let the souls and the revived kids go, and allow the monsters to leave the Underground while he remains.

**_The Region Differences_ **

**Waterfall and Hotland**

In the swapped version of the Underground with Undyne as the royal scientist, Waterfall has become the scientific capital of monsterkind, housing the laboratory and the Great Water Turbine. Waterfall has far less plant life and is instead full of puzzles such as waterslides, music and rhythm puzzles, and puzzles involving recognising patterns in the star-like stones in the ceiling. There are pipes and technology everywhere, as well as recording rooms for Napstablooks shows, who connect the different levels together with some elevators. Waterfall ends with the NTB Resort, after which the Great Water Turbine region follows, which then leads into Hotland.

Hotland, on the other hand, is decidedly more low tech. Alphys lives in a small house right at the start of it, and there are a couple of sentry stations, one of which belongs to Papyrus where he will sell Spaghetti and other noodle dishes, all of which are burnt and taste terrible. Golden Flowers bloom everywhere and there are fireflies all over the place. Monsters bury papers with their hopes and dreams at the roots of these flowers instead of whispering to them. Vines and dangling roots connect the different platforms that Chara must climb in order to reach the top. Alphys has set up some rock, laser and multicolour tile puzzles here, but the region is much calmer and brighter with its bright lava flows and plant life. The region ends in a long bridge over a lava lake followed by a large, empty cave leading into New Home.

**The Core <-> The Great Water Turbine**

The Core: Does not exist. At the End of the Hotland region, there’s only an empty cave with a high top, where Alphys will wait as the final boss before New Home.

The Great Water Turbine: A magical, hydroelectric powerplant that brings electricity to the entire Underground. It sits between Waterfall and Hotland and is powered by the many waterfalls and rivers whose water is redirected towards it. It was created by the former royal scientist, the River Person, who ended up falling into their own creation only to be erased from existence. It follows directly after NTB resort.

_**The Character Swaps** _

**Flowey/Asriel - Golden Flower <-> Echo Flower**

Flowey is an _echo flower_ instead of a _golden flower._

Echo flowers are originally from the surface and bloom in the ruins and rare parts of Waterfall, while golden flowers cover Hotland. Echo flowers used to bloom in the throne room after Frisk and Asriel died there, but Toriel couldn’t keep them alive, so she had Undyne take the first and biggest one and devise a way to keep it alive forever as a memory. Undyne used determination on it, and thus created Flowey as an immortal plant. That is why she assumed that determination was a good way of making souls stronger and created the Amalgamates. But since echo flowers can repeat words, nobody suspects Flowey or thinks he’s unusual, instead thinking he’s just a regular echo flower repeating the last thing he heard. He uses that to his advantage.

Asriel/Flowey is the first Anomaly of the Underground, and as such the only one whose personality or role has not been switched with anyone. He remains the same in all timelines and all AUs. Since Flowey doesn’t have six souls waiting at the end of the castle that he could use to become god, his plan is to guide Chara to Toriel, have her kill them, wait until she brings back the six other souls, and use those to finish his plan.

**Frisk <-> Chara**

_Frisk_ : The first fallen human and sibling of Asriel, hated humanity and loved monsters.

Frisk is still peaceful and a pacifist. They did everything they could in order to help monsters free themselves from the Underground, including donating determination for experiments. When nothing the monsters came up with worked as a solution to break the barrier, they poisoned themselves with buttercups to give their soul to Asriel with the plan to talk people into suicide, since they have a good understanding of how human psychology works. Stoic and rarely shows any emotion. The determination extracted during their time Underground is what Undyne uses for her experiments years later. Their narration is always short and to the point, no matter which route they’re on. They keep urging Chara not to fight and instead to let themselves be captured so the monsters can go free.

 _Chara_ : Second fallen human, wants to save all monsters, can save and load because of their high determination.

Chara is well articulated and more open with their emotions. They don’t want to kill anyone, but they’re not above violence in order to win a fight, or beating enemies into submission downright. They use the ‘asshole pacifist route’ in order to win. Keeps telling Flowey they’re not Frisk, but he doesn’t listen. Generally very sarcastic and punny. Still loves dogs and spends an inordinate amount of time with them in Snowdin, hanging out at the shop and inn. The key to win for them is to overcome their willingness to fight, they have to sacrifice themselves in order to get the golden ending.

**Asgore <-> Toriel**

_Asgore_ : Exiled himself to the ruins, trades jokes with Papyrus through the door, wants to stop Chara/the player from leaving the ruins.

He exiled himself after his initial rage about his dead children cooled down. He doesn’t want a war anymore and disagrees with Toriel’s strategy of freeing the monsters. In his opinion, she can never have a human soul because he fears what will happen if she takes it and leaves for the other six, and that it may lead to a war. Despite that, he misses his wife a lot and dreams of them reuniting one day. He still enjoys gardening, so his house as well as the ruins are covered in greens and flowers, with an echo flower patch at the hole where the humans fell. Asgore gives you echo flower tea as a powerful healing item, asking you if you prefer honey or milk in it, but ultimately adding both. The fight against him is very hard since he really doesn’t want Chara to leave - one soul is enough for Toriel to make her plans come true, so he has a very strong motivation not to let that happen. He accidentally killed all the other humans that fell and buried them in the ruins, leaving him with a great amount of guilt and questioning if he’s really that much better than his wife.

 _Toriel_ : Ruling queen of the Underground, dead set on freeing the monsters with the help of a human soul, offers pie to all visitors to make them feel better.

After Frisk and Asriel died, she had the disagreement with Asgore about how to free the monsters. She decided to go through with her own idea of taking the next soul that falls Underground and using it to cross the barrier in order to collect the other six from bad humans. Unlike Asgore, she does not think this will lead to another war, and she considers this a better solution than to wait for seven, potentially innocent, humans to fall. He found this unacceptable and left her over it. Toriel condemned him as a coward for not being willing to fully commit to doing what it takes to free the monsters. Monsterkind rallied behind her as a strong leader, and is full of hope despite the fact that they haven’t seen a human in so long. While she is still kind and motherly, she won’t offer any mercy should a human come to her, instead immediately beginning a fight in the throne room for their soul. Her throne room has no flowers in it since she’s bad at gardening.

**Papyrus <-> Sans**

_Sans_ : Gets Paps’ enthusiasm, exuberance and dream of being in the royal guard.

Sans is still the older brother and keeps his love for bad jokes and space. He’s good at being social and easily talks to people, with his enthusiastic nature serving him well in making new friends. He’s training with Alphys because of his low HP and his attacks only do 1 damage, so he has to learn how to work around his limits in order to become a royal guard. He isn’t as close to Alphys as Pap is to Undyne. Alphys keeps trying to distract him from training by making him cook pies and quiches with her, the recipes of which she got from Queen Toriel. Unfortunately, Sans is too good at making them, even the queen being impressed, so Alphys has a harder time keeping him distracted. Which is part of why their relationship is more distanced, because Sans notices she’s holding out on him. Sans will tell anyone about how cool he thinks Papyrus is, but that doesn’t really help Papyrus to get over his awkwardness. Sans hangs out with the bunny squad a lot, although he doesn’t like Muffet’s all that much. Initially wanting to capture Chara to force Alphys to let him into the guard, he later tries to protect Chara by distracting Alphys during the Hotland section.

 _Papyrys_ : Gets Sans’ lazy attitude, scientific background and knowledge of timelines. Made a promise to Asgore to protect humans from the ruins if one slips through.

Papyrus is still the younger brother. He’s into japes and practical jokes and pretends to hate Sans’ puns, although actually likes them and will make them occasionally in order to make his brother happy. He has also kept his tendency to say really strange or morbid things, so most monsters avoid him and think he’s weird. His casual attitude hides his insecurities. Awkward and lonely, his best friend is Undyne and the two of them are very close. They often meet up and watch anime together while eating take out and horrible self-made spaghetti. He’s glad Sans has learned to make pies because he can only make spaghetti (thanks to Undyne) and his cooking is shit. When Sans doesn’t have the time to cook, Papyrus will visit Muffet’s instead to buy honeyed tea and maybe some desserts. Papyrus is interested in Undyne’s science and wants to know if humans are descended from skeletons.

**Undyne <-> Alphys**

_Undyne_ : Got Alphys’ interest in science, her shyness around her crush, and her secrets with the Amalgamates.

Undyne has a laboratory in Waterfall and has lost one eye to a science misshap so she wears an eye patch, although it’s a white medical one. She still loves big swords and weapons and dramatic monologues and music, the latter of which is how she bonded with her neighbour Napstablook until she made a body for them to further her own career and theirs as a popular DJ and musician. She’ll often invite Pap to watch anime or do science with her and the results can be very explosive. He’s her best friend and one of the few people she’s comfortable opening up to, which is when she’ll actually get loud and exuberant and enthusiastic. They only eat crap when they’re together, both being terrible cooks.

Toriel gifted her a pie plate that looks like her face after she became a shut in. She has set up a lot of music and rhythm based traps in Waterfall along with waterslides from the Giant Turbine that she guides the player through, instead of working with lasers and steam vents. After keeping the Echo Flower from Toriel’s garden alive, she thought she could use determination to make monster souls stronger and help the monsters flee the Underground. Since a human hasn’t come through in such a long time, she wanted to try if she could help, and accidentally created the amalgamates when her plan didn’t work out. She didn’t immediately recognise that the resurrected Echo Flower was now housing Asriel’s consciousness, since echo flowers can repeat words.

 _Alphys_ : Got Undyne’s fighting nature and position in the royal guard, as well as her overall brashness.

Alphys has a small house in Hotland and attacks with weapons from the dump, and rarely small lightning bolts that she wields similarly to Undyne’s spears. She thinks MMKC2 is a vast improvement over the first series because it has a better character arc. Magical girl anime are her fave and she thinks they’re real. She likes instant ramen, and has learned how to make pies and quiches from Toriel, but she’s often too lazy to cook and Sans has already far surpassed her. She’s a lot less enthusiastic about epic monologues and much quicker to come to the point in her fight. Before that, she follows Chara around and tries to get them to fall for the traps she set up in Hotland, using rocks, lasers and increasingly complex multicolor tile puzzles hidden between the flowers that she got from Undyne. She’s close friends with her two guards Bratty and Catty and they often hang out in the garbage dump together trying to find better weapons and anime, which is where they met Undyne. She has little magic to form attacks, so she mostly fights with her own strength and weapons she finds in the dump. On a genocide route she will have weapons that Undyne created for her, fuelled by determination, which will eventually cause her to melt.

**Mettaton <-> Napstablook**

_Mettaton_ : Shy and reclusive, doesn’t believe in his talents.

Mettaton loves humans and would like to be an actor. But he’s too shy to do anything about it. He’s very jealous of his cousin and how famous they’ve become and keeps going to the ruins to have a quiet place to rant about it. He begrudgingly takes care of the snail farm and has a snail beauty contest set up instead of a snail race. All snails always win a prize, because they’re obviously all gorgeous. He often visits Alphys to watch anime and geek out about humans with her, not liking Undyne since he thinks she tore him and Napstablook apart.

 _Napstablook_ : The loud and confident one, famous, wants to take Chara’s soul to escape to the surface.

Napstablook doesn’t believe in Toriel’s plan and wants to take the human soul for themselves so they can go to the surface and become famous with their music there. They don’t really care about humans or monsters either way. Tries to rope Chara into their radio show and acts as the evil guy during Undyne’s music puzzles, although they feel bad about it. Has a hotel called NTB Resort built at the end of the Waterfall region, right before the Great Water Turbine that sits in the cave between between Waterfall and Hotland. The Resort has a very retro, 1930/40s vibe to it, since they admire the time period where swing music originated. Most of their music are electro swing remixes.

**Grillby <-> Muffet**

_Grillby_ : Lives in Hotland and cares for his fire elemental relatives

Instead of a spider clan, Grillby has a large family of fire elementals he takes care of, among them Fire Fuku, Heats Flamesman and Pyrope. They all make firewhisky and fries to sell and will deliver their food to other places through other monsters who can deal with the moisture of Waterfall and Snowdin. Grillby acts as a miniboss since he promised Alphys to help watch over Hotland, but he isn’t very into fighting nor does he like talking, so he will let Chara go immediately when they prove they’re not violent to him.

 _Muffet_ : Runs Muffet’s in Snowdin.

Muffet runs a small bakery and bistro in Snowdin called Muffet’s, where she serves various baked goods, coffee, tea, spider cider and panini. She’s very affectionate towards her customers and calls them all dearie. Papyrus buys all his honey here, so she knows him well although they’re not close due to his awkwardness. She’ll threaten to set her pet on anyone whom she thinks won’t pay, since she needs the money to pay off the high heating costs needed to keep herself and her spiders warm in Snowdin’s harsh climate. She moved here to be closer to the spider clan in the ruins faster, to reunite her clans faster, but it came at a cost, and now she has to work very hard to keep up.

**Temmie <-> Monster Kid**

_Temmie_ : Admires Alphys a lot and wants to be like her.

Temmie looks up to Alphys and dreams of being strong and cool like her. She has crafted herself the temmie armor out of cardboard to imitate her idol and helps Chara navigate Hotland. Loves humans and thinks they’re cute.

 _Monster Kid_ : Lives in Kid Village with all the other monster kids. Goner Kid mans the shop.

All the monster kids say ‘yo’ a lot. They don’t recognise that Chara is a human, and have been told that humans are dangerous which is why they hide in their village. Depending on how nice Chara is to them, they’ll change their opinion on humans. 

**Snowdin Dogs <-> Snowdin Bunnies / Annoying Dog <-> Cinnamon**

_Dogs & Annoying Dog_: Are all shopkeepers/citizens.

The Snowdin dogs man all the shops. Doggo is constantly hanging out at Muffet’s, smoking sweet-smelling dog treats. Sometimes Muffet kicks him out for it. Dogamy and Dogaressa man the Snowdin Shop and Inn, respectively. Dogamy sells leftover Glamburgers, Puppydough Icecream, Hot Dogs and Dog Salad. Dogaressa watches Honey Bunny (the bunny innkeeper child) while the mum is at work as a guard. Greater Dog walks Annoying Dog around on a leash, which weirds out the Lesser Dog. 

_Bunnies & Cinnamon_: Are members of the royal guard.

The Snowdin Lapine Squad stands watch to catch any incoming humans. Bonnabelle Bunny (Drunk Bunny, vaguely related to the other bunnies, referencing the dogs being related joke) has a drink or two at her station every now and then, which makes it hard for her to see Chara properly. Standing still will cause her attacks to miss. Bonnie and Blossom Bunny (The purple shopkeeper and her sister the white innkeeper) intercept Chara and hear their heartbeat. Slowing their heartbeat by sitting in the snow and cooling down helps them escape. O’Hare (the white bunny guy) makes snow bunnies at his station, while Hoplin (the white bunny girl) serves as the final opponent before the bridge. They all like to hang out at Muffet’s after their shifts have ended. Cinnamon keeps antagonising Sans by interrupting his bone attacks. When interacting with Cinnamon’s bunny residue in their inventory after he steals the rare artifact in Waterfall, Chara can obtain a Cinnamon Bunny. 

**Bratty & Catty <-> 01 & 02**

_Bratty & Catty_: Are part of the royal guard.

Bratty and Catty have entered the royal guard together with Alphys and are her right hand girls, watching over Waterfall. They’re still very close friends and often watch anime together or visit the trash dump to look for new anime or cool weapons. Nobody knows if Bratty and Catty are just best friends or in a relationship.

 _01 & 02_: Used to be close friends with Undyne. Man the shop in the side alley next to NTB resort.

They sell trash and miss their former best friend, but since Undyne has become the royal scientist, she doesn’t really have time for them anymore. They keep flirting with each other during all sales conversations and talking to them for long enough makes it possible to help their relationship along.

**Nice Cream Guy <-> Burgerpants**

_Nice Cream Guy_ : Sells Nice Cream, Bisicles, Ghost Sandwiches and Ghost Fruit at NTBs and is dejected at his position.

He feels very hopeless and stuck in his position and his ears are always droopy. He’s especially sad because half of his wares can’t be eaten by regular monsters, so he can never meet his high sales goals. He says that life is suffering and that there is no point to his job. If Chara helps 01 and 02 to get together, they will buy his nice cream and he will become more optimistic and happy.

 _Burgerpants_ : Has a Starfait Stand he sets up in different locations.

He used to have a burger stand but due to an embarrassing incident while selling Glamburgers that left him with his nickname, he has switched fields and became a Starfait seller, leaving the Glamburgers to Dogamy. He hates it when people ask about his name and why he sells Starfaits if he’s named after a burger. He hopes that if he sells enough Starfaits, he will earn enough money to take acting classes and get a better job, so he’s very stressed out and desperate for monsters to like his wares. On a genocide route, he will give up completely and stop selling Starfaits, becoming very sarcastic. He will close his stand and do nothing but smoke, giving Chara attitude.

**Gaster <-> River Person**

_Gaster_ : Ferries the protagonist across the Underground.

Everything he says on the ferry is completely incomprehensible, but it sounds ominous. His ferry sometimes grows hands at the head. He used to help River Person with their experiments, who used his magic and soul to create Sans and Papyrus from him. After River Person fell into the void, neither Gaster nor his sons remember their familiar relationship.

 _River Person_ : Vanished into the void.

Used to be the royal scientist and built the Great Turbine. When encountered by chance behind a secret door in Hotland, they give obscure warnings before they vanish.

**Amalgamates <-> Gaster Followers**

_Amalagamates_ : Vanished into the void.

Sometimes Chara can encounter the monsters that vanished into the void together with the River Person. The dog parents, Lemon Bread and her agent, Snowy’s mother and all the other monsters like Vegetoids and Astigmatism, appear in random locations all over the Underground to warn Chara about the cryptic hooded figure who fell into their own creation.

 _Gaster Followers_ : Have molten together.

Head guy and Follower 1 have molten together into a slimy figure with two heads and moan about not talking about people who are listening. Follower 2 and the head in its hand have molten into a blob with a tail.

**Gerson <-> Onionsan**

_Gerson_ : Walks next to you in a dry part of Waterfall

Gerson follows Chara throughout one of the long, dry corridors of Waterfall and tells them all about the backstory of Toriel and Asgore and the prophecy, whether they want to hear it or not. He’s a pretty lonely old guy whom many monsters find annoying, which only makes him more desperate to find someone to tell his stories to.

 _Onionsan_ : Has a shop in the lake

They try to sell Sea Tea and Crab Apples from their lake to earn enough money to join their cousins in the Aquarium in New Home and found a band called the Red Hot Chibi Peppers. Their great-grandfather was a war hero who used his tentacles to sink human ships and crush enemies, earning him the nickname of ‘The Kraken of Justice’. Onionsan wants to be just like him and has become a splendid warrior to imitate him, earning themselves the respect of the underground and taking up the title of their grandfather. Alphys looks up to them a lot.

**Jimmy Hotpants (Ice Wolf) <-> Aaron**

_Jimmy Hotpants/Ice Wolf_ : Flexes and is very proud of his body

Jimmy changed his name upon becoming involved in strength training and buying a nice pair of workout pants. He keeps pestering the people in Snowdin, and by extension Chara, about his workout routine and great body. He trains by lifting ice blocks and sometimes it might seem as if he never stops, but he does actually take breaks. 

_Aaron_ : Sifts through trash so it won’t clog the Great Water Turbine

Aaron has been hired to ensure that the Great Water Turbine will run smoothly. Trash that falls down into Waterfall can sometimes clog the turbine, so Aaron is tasked with sifting through the garbage and tossing it away from the water. The fumes from the trash keep irritating his eyes, so he keeps winking all the time.


	2. Underfell

**Point of Divergence**  
Asgore and Toriel found the tapes recorded by Chara and Asriel and interpreted them as Chara bullying Asriel into compliance, even though the truth was more complex than that. They also found out about Asriel resisting Chara about killing based on what Asriel told them before he dusted. Toriel went deep into denial to the point of insanity before she fled to the ruins, while Asgore became convinced that Chara was a traitor, that monsters couldn't afford the weakness of being loving, hopeful and compassionate, and that “kill or be killed” was the only way to prepare his species for their eventual return to the surface. He began a brutal training regimen and propaganda campaign convinced that he was only doing a painful but necessary duty and personally took care to raise future generations with this mindset. 

**Verse Differences**  
The Underground in Underfell is dominated by fear, violence, mind games and gang wars. Strong monsters display their power in the hopes of scaring off others and may make alliances to dominate entire sections of the Underground. Weaker monsters try to either band together to overcome stronger ones or attempt to make alliances with stronger monsters to secure their protection. Family members are most likely to look out for one another although this isn't guaranteed - some monsters are so scared of the emotional pain of losing someone they care about that they will reject all forms of attachment completely, even forsaking their own parents, partners and children. This means that in some parts of the Underground, though not all, children have become rare. The Underground as a whole is still relatively overcrowded though.

At their core, monsters are still made of love, hope and compassion. This makes it often difficult for them to cope with the reality of a kill or be killed world, but also drives many of their actions. Many of them are deeply scared not only for themselves but also for the few others they allow themselves to have feelings for. Raised on the idea that anyone who doesn't kill first is likely to be killed in turn, they will preemptively try to attack those they perceive as a threat to themselves or those they care about. 

Propaganda is common in the Underground, driving home the idea of needing to be strong and violent in order to survive. 

**Flowey**  
When Flowey was awoken by Alphys’ determination experiments, hundreds of years had already passed since his death and the kill or be killed policy had already corrupted the Underground completely. Initially, he threw himself into this new system, believing that his father was right in installing it and glad that his own experiences were used to make monsters stronger. But things kept going wrong and he reset more and more often when something he considered irreparable happened. The longer the resets wore on, the more he recognised how dark and bad this version of the Underground was, and that monsters were never meant to be this way. In spite of his own negativity and lack of compassion, he became convinced that he had to try and change things for the better, ultimately viewing the dark state of the Underground as his fault. 

Flowey still doesn't have a soul and isn't exactly caring and loving, but his realisations about just how bad things are in a kill or be killed world have left him with a drive to better himself and others. He's much closer to his old Asriel persona, albeit less likely to burst into tears and a lot more sarcastic. Still, he's unquestionably Frisk’s ally and genuinely tries to help them facing the dangers of the Underground as best as he can and tries to influence them towards choosing mercy in all situations. Should they choose genocide he will retreat instead and try to warn the other monsters, without success. He'll then end up being one of the final bosses when he absorbs the other six souls to face Frisk after they kill Asgore. This is the only way to see his Omega Flowey form in Underfell. During a pacifist route, he will instead act as a vessel peacefully to break the barrier and immediately become Asriel again. Once the monsters are free, he will release the souls, revert back to Flowey, and accompany Frisk and the other monsters to the surface. 

**Frisk**  
Frisk isn't very different in Underfell. A little more scared and a little more cautious, but otherwise the same. 

**Chara**  
Just like Frisk, they are very similar to their version in Undertale, although they feel a lot more guilt upon seeing what their actions have caused the Underground to become. On a genocide route, they end up wanting to destroy the world because they feel that a world with such a brutal outlook isn't worth living in for anyone. In a way, they're trying to be merciful. In a pacifist route, they become convinced by Frisk and Flowey that they can help save the monsters in spite of everything. 

**Toriel**  
Learning that her adopted human child killed themselves in order for Asriel to absorb their soul, and that they are in a way responsible for Asriel's death, has driven her deep into a twisted denial. She was unable to accept the truth and argued with Asgore that it couldn't be true. When he decided that not only would all humans falling into the Underground be killed for their souls, but also that all monsters should be made strong by his kill or be killed policy, she exiled herself. She brought Chara’s corpse along to give them a proper burial since she convinced herself that they were good and that all the negative things from the tapes never happened. She still talks to Chara at their grave a lot. 

The trauma from what happened has made her mentally unstable and deluded. She treats almost everyone like a child and since she never wants to see a child die again, she ruthlessly exerts her authority in order to ‘protect’ others, claiming that she knows what's best for them. Prone to coddling and babying anyone who's even just a little bit small and/or helpless, and with her deranged looks, she's feared throughout the ruins. She's even more unwilling to let Frisk go than in Undertale and will actively drag them away from the corridor and lock them up, although her fight won't be much harder than normal in the end. 

Her friendship with Sans has very different dynamic in Underfell; they still bond over their shared love of puns and upon him telling her about the brutal state of the Underground, she still manages to extract a promise from him to protect any humans who might come out of the ruins. However, she makes it clear from the start that she doesn't really trust him to keep that promise, and the only reason he agreed in the first place is that he considers her - arguably rightfully so - insane and he wanted to indulge her in order to get her to shut up about it. Ultimately, their friendship is much rougher and a lot less warm and honest. 

**Sans**  
Sans is still fond of puns and likes to take things easy, but the sharp observational skills he shows in Undertale and his tendency to sneak up on others are employed much more often in Underfell. He's very aware that with only one HP, he has to use everything he has in order to stay alive and survive. For that, he uses his intellect and all sorts of sneaky, underhanded tactics along with ways of evasion and escape. He appears sloppy and casual at first, but it's all a ruse. His loose clothes allow for a good range of movement. His big, fluffy jacket is partially an effort to make himself look more threatening, but the also serves as a safeguard. The bulk makes it hard to grab his bones and makes it easy for him to twist out of his jacket and attack whoever grabbed him. 

Sans tries his best to use humour to defuse situations and this can work well for him since humour is a rarity in the Underground, but sometimes it can also make things worse and get him in trouble. He still cares deeply about Papyrus, but has toned it down on the praise so it'll be less likely for others to use his feelings against him. He willingly acts submissive and fearful of Papyrus, giving the impression that his brother is fearsome and ruthless even to his own family, which gains Papyrus a better reputation and status. He's less likely to hide things from his brother as well. 

As in Undertale, he has studied the anomaly and knows about past resets even though he can’t remember them. Flowey has tried to explain why he reset several times, but Sans didn't trust him and ended up attacking him. He thinks Flowey is foolish and should stop messing with time; in his opinion time travel is not the solution to the problems of the Underground. 

**Papyrus**  
Papyrus has retained a bit of oddness, but he's far less optimistic and thanks to the fact that Sans is much blunter with him in Underfell, he has learned to make this work to his advantage and spout twisted and cruel warnings to others before a fight to intimidate them. His desire for simple popularity is toned down, instead he wishes to be recognised as strong and dangerous, both for the safety it would grant him and his brother, and for the status he would gain. Since Sans is less likely to hide things from him and has actually trained him a little to prepare him for the dangers of the Underground, he had an easier time gaining Undyne’s attention. Their friendship is rougher, but no less warm than it would be in Undertale. Papyrus is still prone to grant mercy to his foes, beating them down until they're hanging by on a thread and then offering to let them go. While he has killed, he tries to avoid it whenever possible and his LV isn't actually that high. 

In terms of clothing he picked the exact opposite of his brother and wears stretchy but tight fitting closing, so there's less of a chance of someone grabbing onto his clothes. For extra protection, he has sewn spikes onto his belt, shoulder pads and boots. The only looser piece of clothing he wears is his red scarf and he has sewn needles into it as an extra security measure. Anyone who tries to grab him is in for pain.

Papyrus chides his brother a lot for being lazy and for his puns, in a much harsher way than in Undertale. This is in order to protect both of them, by making it seem as if he doesn't care for his brother, although he takes care to make sure to show that Sans does have some use to him, since he doesn't want other monsters to try and kill Sans to gain his favour either. It can be difficult for both brothers to keep up the charade of not actually liking each other, but on some days the stress of the constantly dangerous situation also makes it hard to know when to stop putting each other down. 

Those are the days where the brothers will most strongly seek to reassure each other of their affection, mostly by having Sans read Papyrus fluffy bunny. It's an old and childish ritual, but one that is nostalgic and unarguably affectionate, and as such it helps to keep the two of them grounded and assured that they still care for each other. 

**Undyne**  
Undyne’s natural drive for strength serves her well in Undefell, and she's one of the most respected and feared monsters in the Underground. As the captain of the royal guard, she personally makes sure that Asgore’s soldiers are up to his standards; disciplined, strong and ruthless. Although the guards are not monsters anyone would want to mess with, Undyne ensures that they keep the peace as far as possible and crack down on gangs gaining too much power especially when drugs and other illegal substances are involved, or when the gangs target children. In those cases, the guard will actually help the weak for once. Apart from that, they mostly make sure that the settlements at least are calm - for what counts as calm in Underfell. Undyne’s strict and competent enforcement of these guidelines have earned her a great deal of respect from Asgore and many monsters, but also a lot of hatred from the particularly shady parts of the Underground. She reacts to that with the same kind of boisterous bragging she would in Undertale, but here she is strong enough to back that bragging up regardless of which monster attacks her and she would be a fearful foe for humans as well. She wears her armour almost constantly. Even in social or private situations, it's rare for her to take it off, as it not only gives her a sense of security but also reminds others of her status and power. 

She's training Papyrus much harder than in Undertale, not only because she can see that he's a capable fighter and could be just what Asgore wants for his royal guard, but also because she secretly harbours the same fears she does in the canon game: that Papyrus might choose mercy in exactly the wrong moment and will die for it. In her mind, beating that compassion out of him is its own form of mercy. Ironically, this means that she's destroying the very innocence that she secretly finds touching in him. 

The dangers of the Underground mean that she's a lot more open with Alphys about her feelings, but works a lot harder to keep them a secret from everyone else. Papyrus has a vague idea that something might be up, but otherwise there is no indication that Undyne might care for the royal scientist at all. Her appreciation for anime is also toned down a lot and she has less than positive feelings for humanity. The story of how Chara supposedly manipulated the royal family and then murdered the prince has her convinced that humanity deserves nothing but an all-out war and she's preparing accordingly. When meeting Frisk, she won't waste time with heroic antics or epic speeches. Instead, she'll ruthlessly start to hunt them right from the start, throwing everything she has at them in order to bring them down and gather the last soul needed to free her people. 

**Alphys**  
Alphys is low on inherent magic and has little drive to be physically active, so in order to survive in Undefell, she has focused more strongly on creating dangerous traps, puzzles and machinery in order to protect herself and bring down her foes. This gained her some attention for the throne and she seized the chance immediately, working with her friend Mettaton to create the killer robot that gains her the position of the royal scientist. 

In this variant of the Underground, she doesn't hide her experiments or lie about the amalgamates, instead electing to let everyone know in order to establish her own reputation as someone dangerous and wicked. Asgore supports her experiments, as he feels that it's better for monsters to become amalgamates instead of die, so fallen monsters are regularly rounded up and sent to her. There are thus a lot more amalgamates in Underfell, taken care of by several of Alphys’ assistants. 

Alphys has a lot of trouble with her shyness. She really tries hiding it and giving a frightening impression instead, but she's not very good at it. Only her talk about her rather amoral experiments makes other monsters fear her, so she talks about those a lot whenever she has to interact with monsters. Otherwise she prefers to be reclusive and cultivate rumours, true or false, about how evil and ruthless she is, so others will leave her alone. Her friendship with Mettaton helps in this regard, as he has a lot of influence and will spread tales about her brutality to help her out. Undyne’s more open attitude about her feelings can sometimes help in giving Alphys a much needed confidence boost. 

**Mettaton**  
Mettaton is an actual killer robot in Undefell, with his entertainment efforts being more secondary. They all involve actual killing too, on many occasions, as Asgore uses his shows to publicly execute criminals and traitors. Cooking with a Killer Robot is just one of the many programmes that involve dusting monsters for all of the Underground to see as part of the propaganda efforts. 

Mettaton is fine with that, since it not only helps him gain ratings but it also effectively nets him a fearsome reputation among other monsters that offsets his flamboyance and appreciation of sparkly things to a certain degree. Plus, he can gain LV and power without having to work hard for it. In Underfell, he keeps his appreciation for humans and their culture a secret, since it would go against the official party line put into place by Asgore. Mettaton uses elements of human culture in his shows and hotel under the guise of showing monsters what humans are like in order to prepare them for the war, but he needs to be careful not to show them as positive or admirable for this excuse to hold up. As such, he presents humans as decadent, treacherous, brutal, savage and ruthless, feeding the fear of humans in monsters that Asgore has cultivated. Since Mettaton has to view a lot of human material though in order to decide whether or not it's appropriate to show in his shows, he's very aware of the fact that this is not actually true and that humans are capable of compassion, kindness, mercy and many other positive actions. His wish to take Frisk’s soul and escape to the surface with it is here less motivated by his own selfishness and more out of a desire to get away from the brutality of the Underground, spare the monsters and the humans an unnecessary war, and live on the surface in peace. 

His body is a lot sturdier and more heavy set than it is in Undertale, hiding a nasty assortment of weapons and torture devices. 

**Asgore**  
Asgore works very hard to drive the monsters to accept the ‘kill or be killed’ philosophy in spite of their own natures. He genuinely believes that he's doing the right thing, that there is no other way to ensure that his people will not only be freed from the Underground, but also be able to survive on the surface. His experiences with Chara have left him deeply jaded about humanity in general and in combination with his experiences during the war he has given up on the hope that humans might in any way be kind or merciful to monsters. In his mind, actions like that are nothing but a ruse to cause more hurt later on. He holds himself to this policy just as strictly as any other monster, leading by example and understanding the pain this philosophy causes in the monsters very well. Since he comprehends this struggle, he's able to draw up very effective plans and strategies to create better propaganda and further his agenda. 

He feels a lot less remorse for the human children he killed. Even though he recognises that some of them may potentially have been innocent at that moment in time, he's completely convinced that it would only have been a matter of time until they went violent. Taking them out was thus not only a way to gather souls to break the barrier, but also a proactive way to protect his people.

Asgore works together closely with Mettaton in order to spread his propaganda and publicly execute criminals and traitors; those considered to have acted against his policies and thus against monsterkind. While smaller cases will be executed by Mettaton on his game shows, those accused of high treason or similarly heavy crimes will be dealt with by Asgore personally and the executions will be broadcast on the news with an appropriately serious tone. Like this, Asgore has amassed a high EXP and LV that helps him subdue those that would challenge his strength or try to defy him. 

Due to his beliefs and politics, but also because of his higher LV, Asgore is a lot less amicable in Underfell. He has an open ear for the concerns of his people insofar as that he wants to know how to best implement his policies at any given moment, in order to better control and steer the population. He also wants to know about potential plans for treason or rebellions, meaning that he's not above using spies and other underhanded tactics. He's shrewd and wary and less likely to be surprised and overwhelmed. Sometimes he will even resort to threatening and injuring potential troublemakers himself over an invitation for ‘tea’ and this is so well known that inviting another monster for a cup of tea has become a threat in itself among the population. 

In the fight with Frisk, they will not be able to win by themselves. Instead, Flowey steals the other six souls while the other characters distract Asgore and vouch for Frisk’s kindness, and subdues Asgore with their power, before absorbing all the monster souls in the Underground and becoming Asriel again. In this form he will reach out to the monsters inside him and convince them but especially his father that his actions were wrong and not for the best of monsterkind, and that he doesn't want to be the reason that the Underground is such a dark and violent place. Asgore and the others are released from inside him and after Asgore sees the error of his ways and the two share a tearful hug, Asriel breaks the barrier, releases the other souls and becomes Flowey again. Asgore then affirms to the monsters that they will try a more peaceful approach and leads them to the surface, knowing that he'll have a lot of work to do in order to undo the harm he has caused in making the monsters so violent. He relies a lot on Flowey, Frisk and their friends in order to steer the monsters into a more positive direction.


	3. Swapfell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next part of the headcanons. These are all the ones I wrote up on tumblr so far, I'll have to see when I do the next ones. There's a couple I'd still be interested in exploring.
> 
> If you wanna influence what I write next, check out [my Tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)!

**_The Differences in Story_**  
Like in Underswap, Frisk was born in Chara’s place and vice versa. However, when Frisk and Asriel died after their unsuccessful plan, both Asgore and Toriel found out about how Frisk planned their own suicide in order to have Asriel absorb their soul and cross the barrier. While both Asgore and Toriel vow revenge against the humans, Toriel thinks that the soul of the next human who falls should be taken, and one of the monarchs should cross the barrier to collect the rest. Then, the monster armies should take the human village hostage and judge those humans who hurt their son only. 

Asgore on the other hand felt that an all-out war would be the only thing that would allow the monsters to ever live peacefully on the surface, and that they should slowly collect seven human souls while in the Underground, using that time to prepare themselves and grow their population into an army. Both were convinced that their approach was the correct one and in their rage about the premeditated suicide of their children, they refused to back down. Both proclaimed their plans and different monsters rallied behind them, and eventually Asgore and his faction left for the ruins of Home, ultimately splitting the Underground and throwing the population into a civil war that has lasted to this day. The law of ‘kill or be killed’ is a consequence of this war. 

**_The Region Differences_**  
The Underground is effectively split in half. Asgore and his faction control Home, Snowdin and parts of Waterfall, while Toriel and her followers rule over New Home, the Core and parts of Hotland. Hotland and Waterfall are the regions where most of the fights between the two factions happen, so the territories aren't as clearly divided. The multitude of traps in all regions are intended to deter the other faction from entering and conquering.

Since Asgore has taken the ruins of Home as his permanent capital following his departure from New Home, the old city is in ruins no longer. He had the city rebuild and it is bustling with monsters, all well-trained and constantly on the prowl for human souls. Making it through this part of the Underground is much harder for Frisk and Chara than it was in the original timeline. 

Snowdin is a secured outpost of Asgore’s forces. It's still a small town of mostly furry monsters, but it's less cosy and has a stronger military vibe to it. Shopkeepers only provide the bare necessities, everyone else is in the military as a sentry or soldier.

Waterfall is full of mechanical traps thanks to Undyne and like in Underswap, a giant water turbine separates Waterfall from Hotland. Unlike in Underswap, the puzzles in Swapfell are designed to be deadly and are likely to drown whoever falls into them. Additionally, the constant fighting in this area has left many of the puzzles damaged. There is no NTB resort here either.

Hotland is low tech and full of Golden Flowers and Fireflies, but monsters don’t bury their wishes here anymore. Since Hotland is one of the two main battlegrounds of the Underground, much of this region has been destroyed and in place of the Core is instead a military camp led by Alphys.

New Home is the place from where Toriel rules her faction of the Underground and another capital filled with monsters. It’s arguably more peaceful than the Ruins, but here too monsters are raised in order to fight first and foremost. New Home is kept deliberately white and clean in order to give off an orderly and peaceful appearance that’s supposed to support the impression that Toriel is the leader you want to support in order to achieve peace for the monsters.

**_The Character Swaps_ **

**Flowey/Asriel - Golden Flower <-> Echo Flower**

Flowey is an _echo flower_ instead of a _golden flower._

Flowey is soulless, but a lot closer in character to how he was as Asriel. For a while, he enjoyed the violence of the war and used his resets to play with the monsters to his heart’s contents. When he grew bored, he supported one side or the other, but the results were always the complete eradication of the losing side, which he grew more and more upset about. By the time Chara falls, he’s horrified by the civil war that’s playing out in the Underground and is trying to unite the factions, talking to monsters in order to make them see reason, but he isn’t successful. When Chara falls, he helps them along thinking it’s Frisk and uses them as a distraction in order to steal the souls from Asgore. He doesn’t tell Chara about this, but this allows him to break the barrier with Chara’s help once they reach the end of the Underground and defeat Toriel.

**Frisk <-> Chara**

_Frisk_ : The first fallen human and sibling of Asriel, hated humanity and loved monsters.

Frisk wanted to free the monsters with their sacrifice and is horrified that their actions have resulted in the monsters attacking each other. Thanks to their pacifistic nature in general, they hate that their actions are used as a reason for a civil war. While they hate what their parents are doing in their name, they think that Toriel’s plan is better than Asgore’s as it doesn’t involve another war. For this reason, they try to keep Chara alive for the first half of the Underground, but then later urge them to allow Toriel’s soldiers to collect their soul in order to help Toriel win and end the war among monsters.

_Chara_ : Second fallen human, wants to save all monsters, can save and load because of their high determination. 

They have a pretty negative opinion of the monsters thanks to their violent nature as a result of the war, but remain hopeful that freeing them might help them get past their differences. They aren't above using violence themselves in order to protect themselves, although they will try not to kill if possible. Frisk’s constant urging to sacrifice themselves annoys them to no end, they think that they can find a third solution in order to break the barrier.

**Asgore <-> Toriel**

_Asgore_ : Lives in the ruins, trades jokes with Papyrus through the door, wants to stop Chara/the player from leaving the ruins. 

Asgore has left for the ruins in order to ensure that no human soul will make it past him. He knows that Toriel will only need one human soul to make her plan a reality and so his goal is to catch any human right after they fall. He has already collected six human souls and only needs one more in order to win and make his ideal come true. He lives above the door to the rest of the Underground and keeps it locked, with him being the only one who can open it. All travel from the Ruins to the rest of the Underground and vice versa is very strictly supervised by him personally. He also stores the six human souls in his house. 

In the wake of his children's death, he has become ruthless and distrusting of humans, although he remains a relatively reasonable figure of authority for the monsters serving under him. He retains his paternal characteristics from the original timeline and often gives his subjects advice. In return, he expects absolute loyalty and dedication to the cause though, and he doesn't tolerate monsters who refuse to grow stronger. In his worldview, refusing to train and become strong is an act of disloyalty because it could become a disadvantage during the war against Toriel and the war he plans to wage against humans. He keeps reminding his monsters that if they are not strong, their families and comrades will be in danger, thus encouraging them to follow his wishes. 

He began talking to Papyrus through the door to the ruins when he inspected the door for its security. While Asgore doesn't approve of a sentry using the door for joke practice, he found it a nice way to be updated on the goings on in Snowdin and Waterfall anonymously, so he pretended to be just another sentry in order to keep talking to Papyrus and thus gain information. 

_Toriel_ : Calls herself queen of the Underground, dead set on freeing the monsters with the help of a human soul, offers pie to all visitors to make them feel better. 

Toriel us very strongly opposed to Asgore’s plan and pursues her own ideal of using one soul to leave the Underground and collect the rest instead. She's fighting against his forces in Waterfall and Hotland because she wants to drive him out of the ruins to stop him from collecting souls and preparing for a war. In her opinion, another war is a folly that cannot be allowed to happen. She intends to punish only those who are against monsters, and otherwise live a quiet and peaceful life possibly away from humans. Since no human has ever reached her since Asgore has moved to the ruins, she's getting increasingly anxious and desperate, and her attacks on Asgore forces are increasingly brutal as time goes on. 

In addition to pushing her troops ever harder and focusing on gaining ground on the battlefield, she has started looking at other tactics to gain the upper hand in the conflict. Espionage, surveillance, disinformation, sabotage, blackmail, brivery - she’ll try to undermine Asgore’s troops at every turn with whatever means she deems necessary. 

**Papyrus <-> Sans**

_Sans_ : Gets Paps enthusiasm, exuberance and dream of being in the royal guard.

Sans was raised as an attack dog for the Queen as part of an experiment where young monsters were taken at young ages and trained for their entire lives. Despite having only one HP, he completed his training under Alphys as the most successful, and as such was sent to Snowdin as a double agent. He and his brother insert themselves into the community and work their way up the ranks of Asgore’s guard in order to collect information for Toriel, destabilise Asgore’s troops and help any humans that might fall so Toriel can collect their soul instead. 

Sans is deeply loyal to the Queen, having been raised to serve her. Due to the fact that she never treated him badly and thanks to Alphys’ rough but not unnecessarily cruel approach to his training, he views them almost as friends and wants his mission to be successful for their sakes. He's cheerful and friendly towards Chara in order to lull them into a sense of security, so they will accept his help and make it into the territory of Toriel's forces, where Alphys can take over and either harvest their soul directly or bring them to the queen. He's perfectly okay with the thought of leading a child into death and would kill them on the spot if necessary. 

_Papyrys_ : Gets Sans lazy attitude, scientific background and knowledge of timelines. Made a promise to Asgore to bring humans from the ruins back to him.

Like Sans, Papyrus was sent to Snowdin in order to work as a double agent for the queen. Unlike Sans though, his training wasn't as successful and he is far less loyal to Toriel's cause than Sans is. He ended up working more in Toriel's scientific division instead of being a soldier but despite being good at it, he was pressured into leaving with his brother. His job is to keep an eye on Sans and to try and steal Undyne’s methods so they can be copied by Toriel’s side. His friendly feelings for Undyne make this difficult. He's not really happy with all the fighting or his work as a double agent and really just wants it all to be over. While he does believe that Toriel is right about not wanting to fight the humans, he thinks it's wrong for her to pursue a path that has led the monsters into a civil war. When he starts talking to Asgore through the door without knowing who he is, Papyrus is easily convinced to promise that he will guard any human that might slip through the door and bring them back in order for the monsters there to gain the last necessary soul. 

Papyrus is entirely willing to betray Toriel if it means that the civil war will stop. He doesn't really believe in either Toriel's or Asgore’s plans, to him they're both wrong about how they handle things but he's convinced that if Asgore wins, it will be over sooner. Since he is still inherently optimistic, he thinks that Asgore might still reconsider the war once they all get to the surface so that everyone gets what they want. Whereas if Toriel wins, Asgore and his faction would still want to fight her to establish his rule. The difficulty of the civil war strains his loyalties to the point where he arguably makes some very questionable decisions that he truly believes are for the best of everyone. 

**Undyne <-> Alphys**

_Undyne_ : Got Alphys’ interest in science, her shyness around her crush, and her secrets with the Amalgamates.

Undyne works as a scientist for Asgore in Waterfall. He practically raised her from a young age, so she was willing to go to the front for him and work on the traps and other defence mechanism in the area that are meant to both deter Toriel’s forces and trap any human who may have made it to this point. She’s pretty successful at using her contraptions to fight Toriel’s troops since she has a penchant for explosions and dangerous things. She also helped build Napstablooks body in order to make them into a better fighter, basically creating a living weapon as a body for them.

Her experiments on the amalgamates aren’t kept a secret. Instead the amalgamates have been repurposed as soldiers to fight against Toriel’s troops. Any monster that’s falling down is sent to her in order to become another amalgamate so there are never shortages on soldiers. Undyne and her inventions and amalgamates are a big reason why Waterfall is more firmly in Asgore’s hand and why his troops are able to hold the water turbine and advance into Hotland. Undyne still assumes that she created a sentient Echo Flower when she made Flowey, and she’s investing a lot of effort into repeating this feat, hoping that she can bolster the army with more flowers.

She’s initially wary of Papyrus, but quickly comes to like him. She values his scientific input a lot and likes that he can be just as explosive as she is. They often watch anime together and hang out and eat the crap food they cook together. Her feelings for Aphys are even more of a secret here, because having a crush on the enemy is something that could get her into a lot of trouble. Even Papyrus or Napstablook as her closest friends don’t know about it. 

_Alphys_ : Got Undyne’s fighting nature and position in the royal guard, as well as her brashness.

Alphys is the captain of the royal guard for Toriel and is directly responsible for leading and training her troops. The war has left her with a no - nonsense attitude and she’s pretty ruthless in a fight, getting directly to the point and attacking with lightning bolts. She’s still good with multicolour puzzles and has used them in Hotland in order to stop Asgore’s forces from advancing, but she knows that with the amalgamates, their side is at a vast disadvantage if they engage directly. Part of her reason why she helped Toriel develop strategies for misdirection and infiltration is that she knows that her side won’t be able to win in the long term. During her forays into Waterfall trying to win more territory there she has often come into contact with Undyne and developed a crush on her, which she isn’t sure how to handle, leading to her being even more rough when the two of them meet in battle. 

She uses her knowledge of the amalgamates to train up Toriel’s soldiers, reminding them that if they lose, it’s very likely that the enemy side will use them in their experiments and that if Asgore wins, none of them will ever find peace if they die. It’s a very effective way to ensure that every soldier gives it their all on the battlefield and has helped Toriel’s troops push back even when they have fewer numbers.

**Mettaton <-> Napstablook**

_Mettaton_ : Shy and reclusive, doesn’t believe in his talents.

Mettaton has a hard time in Swapfell, because he genuinely appreciates humans and this is not an acceptable opinion to have on Asgore’s side. He has genuinely considered betraying Asgore and joining Toriel’s side, but he doesn’t want to leave his cousin, who’s firmly loyal to Undyne and by extension to Asgore. Mettaton often leaves Waterfall and hides in the Ruins when the fighting becomes too much for him. While he can’t die on the frontlines since he’s a ghost, he would much rather avoid the war. He hopes that if he finds a human in the ruins, he can take its soul and leave for the surface by himself, gaining another soul for his cousin there so they can both be free and leave the war behind them. 

_Napstablook_ : The loud and confident one, famous, a killer robot. 

Napstablook has been given a robotic body by Undyne for the purpose of fighting against Toriel’s soldiers and their body has the equipment necessary for that job. Undyne was kind enough to give them some equipment for being a DJ and radio host too though, under the guise of them relaying news of the war via radio back to the Ruins. They fulfill this job dutifully out of gratitude for Undyne, even though they would much prefer to focus on their music as an art. Their plans for a resort of some sort were never able to be fulfilled because of the war, but they fight close to the water turbine by setting up musical puzzles in order to prevent the other side from taking over the source of electric power completely. 

**Grillby <-> Muffet **

_Grillby_ : Lives in Hotland and cares for his clan of soot balls.

Grillby and his family of fire elementals run an outpost in Hotland that serves as a source of entertainment for the soldiers at the front, but he’s also actively involved in the war. He and other fire elementals have managed to establish a line of communication to the few elementals in the Ruins, who act as a spy network in Asgore’s capital. Grillby relays any information they gather directly to Toriel so her troops can adjust their strategy as quickly as possible. He also smuggles firewhiskey into the Ruins in order to make money for his side and hopefully destabilise Asgore’s side by getting his monsters hooked on alcohol. 

_Muffet_ : Runs Muffet’s in Snowdin. 

Muffet and her spiders have a similar role in Snowdin acting as a place where Asgore’s soldiers can find entertainment and distraction, although she strictly doesn’t deal in alcohol. Her bistro serves monster food with a special focus on healing magic, and it’s actually connected to the inn. The spiders produce silk that is used for magical bandages in order to heal wounded soldiers more efficiently in addition to monster food, especially in life threatening situations where a monster might be too weak to eat and be healed that way. 

**Temmie <-> Monster Kid**

_Temmie_ : Admires Alphys a lot and wants to be like her.

Temmie is a young monster that desperately wants to join the war in order to prove to Alphys that she is worthy. She ends up helping Chara navigating hotland with the intention of leading Chara to Alphys, hoping that this will finally earn her Alphys’ favour.

_Monster Kid_ : Lives in Kid Village with all the other monster kids. Goner Kid mans the shop. 

The monsters in kid village stay hidden because they want to remain neutral in the war. They’re among the few monsters who won’t attack Chara even after learning that they’re human, because they genuinely don’t want to be involved in the mess. Their only goal is to be left in peace so they won’t have to fight. They’re the most peaceful and nice monsters in Swapfell. 

**Snowdin Dogs <-> Snowdin Bunnies / Annoying Dog <-> Cinnamon**

_Dogs & Annoying Dog_: Are all shopkeepers/citizens.

The Snowdin Dogs have a supportive role in Asgore’s army. Doggo often hangs out at Muffet’s, smoking sweet smelling dog-treats to distract himself from the horrors of the war. Dogamy and Dogaressa man the Snowdin Shop and Snowed Inn, respectively. Dogamy sells leftover Glamburgers, Puppydough Icecream, Hot Dogs and Dog Salad as field rations for the soldiers. Dogaressa watches Honey Bunny (the bunny innkeeper child) while the mum is out fighting. Greater Dog walks Annoying Dog around on a leash, which weirds out the Lesser Dog.

_Bunnies & Cinnamon_: Are members of the royal guard. 

The Snowdin Lapine Squad is one of Asgore’s elite squad of soldiers, who are the main force in Snowdin. Bonnabelle Bunny (Drunk Bunny, vaguely related to the other bunnies, referencing the dogs being related joke) has a drink or two at her station every now and then, which makes it hard for her to see Chara properly. She’s still a fierce fighter that shouldn’t be underestimated. Bonnie and Blossom Bunny (The purple shopkeeper and her sister the white innkeeper) intercept Chara and hear their heartbeat. Slowing their heartbeat by sitting in the snow and cooling down helps them escape. O’Hare (the white bunny guy) makes snow bunnies at his station to distract any enemies passing through, while Hoplin (the white bunny girl) serves as a tank for the unit. They all like to hang out at Muffet’s after their shifts have ended. Cinnamon keeps antagonising Sans by interrupting his bone attacks - this is because Cinnamon recognises Sans as a spy. When interacting with Cinnamon’s bunny residue in their inventory after he steals the rare artifact in Waterfall, Chara can obtain a Cinnamon Bunny.

**Bratty & Catty <-> 01 & 02**

_Bratty & Catty_: Are part of the royal guard.

Bratty and Catty are Alphys’ squad mates and second in command directly after her. They always fight as a team and are terrifying opponents. They often accompany Alphys on missions into Waterfall and have quite a reputation on the opposing side.

_01 & 02_: Used to be close friends with Undyne. Man the shop in the side alley next to the water turbine.

01 and 02 are among the monsters who hate the civil war and aren’t really on any side. They act as double agents for both Toriel and Asgore, lying to both sides in order to make money and save themselves. Since Undyne left them to become the royal scientist, they feel they have nothing left in the world but each other so they don’t even try to help and resolve the conflict, instead just making a living for themselves.

**Nice Cream Guy <-> Burgerpants**

_Nice Cream Guy_ : Sells Nice Cream, Bisicles, Ghost Sandwiches and Ghost Fruit at the water turbine and is dejected at his position. 

Nice Cream Guy sells monster food at the water turbine for both sides. Unlike 01 and 02, he does this not out of egoism but in an effort to help as many wounded monsters as possible and stop so many deaths from happening. Since he still sees a lot of death and suffering, he’s constantly in a state of depression, even though soldiers from both sides appreciate his efforts.

_Burgerpants_ : Has a Starfait Stand he sets up in different locations.

Burgerpants is a travelling merchant selling food in Hotland and Waterfall. Like 01 and 02, he just wants to make a living for himself and doesn’t really care which side wins the war. In his opinion, his own position will be terrible no matter who wins, so he has given up on supporting one side or the other. He just makes as much as he needs in order to survive and spends the rest of his time smoking.

**Gaster <-> River Person**

_Gaster_ : Ferries the protagonist across the Underground.

Gaster works a smuggling operation and uses the waterways and rivers in the Underground in order to ferry monsters between the enemy lines. He only speaks using sign language is rather enigmatic. 

_River Person_ : Vanished into the void. 

The river person fell into their own creation, the great water turbine separating Waterfall and Hotland. Chara can encounter them behind a grey door in Waterfall on rare occasions, where the river person will give them cryptic warnings about the monster war before vanishing.

**Gerson <-> Onionsan**

_Gerson_ : Walks next to you in a dry part of Waterfall

Gerson follows Chara throughout one of the long, dry corridors of Waterfall and tells them all about the backstory of Toriel and Asgore and the prophecy, whether they want to hear it or not. He’s a pretty lonely old guy whom many monsters find annoying, which only makes him more desperate to find someone to tell his stories to. He’s viewed as useless by most of the monsters fighting in the war despite his immense knowledge, because he doesn’t think monsters should be fighting each other and refuses to participate.

_Onionsan_ : Lives in the lake where they ambush monsters

They’re a war hero who used their tentacles to sink human ships and crush enemies, earning them the nickname of ‘The Kraken of Justice’. They’ve set up permanently in one of the lakes in Waterfall, where they will ambush any monsters from Asgore’s side that comes too close. Asgore’s troups keep trying to defeat them but they’re too strong, so the soldiers have to find different ways of navigating Waterfall. Even Undyne with her technology couldn’t manage to defeat them. It’s thanks to Onionsan that Toriel hasn’t lost the fight for territory in Waterfall entirely yet in spite of the Amalgamates. Alphys looks up to them a lot. 

**Jimmy Hotpants (Ice Wolf) <-> Aaron**

_Jimmy Hotpants/Ice Wolf_ : Flexes and is very proud of his body

Jimmy changed his name upon becoming involved in strength training and becoming a soldier. He keeps pestering the people in Snowdin, and by extension Chara, about his strength and physique and how great of a fighter he is. He trains by lifting ice blocks and sometimes it might seem as if he never stops, but he does actually take breaks. A terrifying opponent who is more than capable of backing up his claims.

_Aaron_ : Sifts through trash so it won’t clog the Great Water Turbine

Aaron has made it his mission to ensure that the Great Water Turbine will run smoothly. Trash that falls down into Waterfall can sometimes clog the turbine, so Aaron is tasked with sifting through the garbage and tossing it away from the water. He lets both sides pay him for the job, since both profit from his work. Not that he tells them about the double income. The fumes from the trash keep irritating his eyes, so he keeps winking all the time.


	4. Mobtale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More headcanons because of... reasons!! Haha!
> 
> If you wanna influence what I write next, check out [my Tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)!

**Point of Divergence**  
Chara and Asriel succeeded with their plan. They managed to fight back against the humans who attacked them, took 6 more souls and made most of the other humans of the settlement flee. They became a god, breaking the barrier together and freeing their people. The monsters left the Underground after “only” 500 years of banishment and integrated back into the surface on their own. The settlement of Ebott at the foot of the mountain has been their home for centuries now and is a large and thriving city. Initially they kept themselves hidden while they rebuilt their numbers and strength. Since the settlement was so remote, this worked well for them. Only when human civilisation finally spread to their city about a hundred and fifty years later did they make contact with humanity again. By that point, the monsters were already well established again. Their insistence to stay in Ebott became a problem for them though, as the humans basically trapped them there via laws and regulations. 

**Verse Differences**  
There is a small number of humans living permanently in Ebott, descendants of the humans from 500 years ago as well as a small workforce. This is not officially acknowledged, and human politicians maintain that all humans in Ebott are only there on a non permanent basis. Otherwise, trade and visitations to Ebott are accepted in the modern day, but the monsters can only leave the city under heavy guard by the humans to perform specific tasks before they have to return to the city. This is ostensibly for their own safety.

The native humans of Ebott don't have the same restrictions, so they often leave the town to gather information for the monsters or advocate for them, some work as spies or try to influence policy makers and lobbyists in their favour. This is part of what helped opening up trade relations, for example. The systemic disadvantages monsters experience still had many of them slowly turn towards crime. Small scale attacks on Ebott by extremists are common and not persecuted by human law enforcement. The monsters have to deal with them by themselves. Their available magic delayed the development of technology, so in 2016, there’s a 1920s/1930s atmosphere but with a lot of magitech devices going around. Among humans, monsters have a bad reputation as criminals and there are rumours that they steal children. This is used against them in order to keep up the status quo, to justify the oppression and restrictive laws against them.

The underground cave where the monsters used to be banished is a historical site for the monsters. Some have moved back there in order to upkeep the place, voluntarily living under the earth and only occasionally visiting the surface. They offer guided tours to school classes from Ebott and tourists in select areas, although much of the underground is only accessible to monsters and residents of Ebott. Many monsters who own land or houses in the underground use them as storage for illegal goods. 

**Character changes**

_Flowey_  
Does not exist. Instead, Asriel is still merged with Chara and has an additional 6 souls inside him, making him a god. 

After Asriel freed the monsters, he was unanimously voted to be the new king. His parents initially supported him while he was still inexperienced and together they managed to build a stable settlement with the humans still left in Ebott. Asriel can still talk to Chara, although he doesn't make that fact public. Only few people know they're still around. Chara is very amused at the cult around their memory. 

Both Asriel and Chara aren't very happy with the criminal direction the monster society has taken, but they don't know how to change it while the restrictions against them are in place and agree it's necessary. They try their best to improve the situation through direct action and indirect influencing of policy makers. 

Asriel as a king of what’s increasingly a crime hub is still kind and filled with empathy, but five hundred years of rulership and dealing with the oppression of human authorities for the past century have left him highly aware of other’s motives and shrewd. He’s a very competent diplomat and negotiator, a political opponent to take seriously, and a lot more powerful both socially and physically than his slender body and calm demeanour would suggest.

_Chara_  
Is aware in Asriel’s body and speaks to him, but doesn't me their presence publicly known, nor do their use their shared body to talk to anyone directly. They prefer to stay in the shadows. They initially helped Asriel gain control of the absorbed souls so he could focus on interacting with the outside world without having the souls overwhelm him. By now, the other souls no longer have any will left, so they can focus on other things. 

A cult of personality has sprung up around their memory, depicting them as the martyr angel of the underground filled with love and compassion. To monsters, they are something akin to a saint, many invoke their name to swear on something or to beg for protection, almost like a prayer. To Chara, this is hilarious considering that they sometimes want to use Asriel’s godly power to just destroy every human who keeps them trapped in Ebott. They agree with him that it’s a bad idea though and don’t push the issue. 

Ever since getting revenge on their village and freeing the monsters, they have grown into a clever influence in the background. Many of the deceptive plans to influence public opinion of monsters, the spying, and some of the other underhanded tactics used to gain more freedom for monsters are based on their ideas, tempered by Asriel. They do have a strong moral code, but they still prioritise monster interests over human ones and they can be ruthless against humans if Asriel lets them, which isn’t as often as they’d like. 

_Frisk_  
Frisk is one of many human children who runs away to find refuge in Ebott over the years. This is where the rumour that monsters steal children comes from. The fantastical nature of the monster settlement - in the eyes of kids - makes the city a common goal to reach for kids and teenagers who have reasons to want to run away or disappear. They hope for a better future there in spite of the rumours of crime. Ebott doesn't have any official orphanages, not wanting to alert human authorities to the issue. The children are instead distributed into good households for them by the King himself, since Chara understands their situation. Frisk in particular ends up staying in Asriel’s household because Chara sees a lot of themselves in Frisk, and they try to be a mentor to them through Asriel to ensure Frisk will grow up with a healthier mindset than Chara did. 

On a pacifist route, they have the opportunity to become an assistant ambassador in order to help the monsters attain their freedom, to finally be allowed to go wherever they want to. On a genocide route, they can destabilise the whole settlement by allying themselves with the terrorists attacking the city, since they have access to many high ranking monsters including the king. 

_Toriel and Asgore_  
Both Toriel and Asgore are deceased. They helped Asriel with the transition into kingship as advisors and after some years noticed that they were still aging as boss monsters with a growing child. Even Asriel’s transformation thanks to the seven acquired souls did not stop this process. They made their preparations and died peacefully and proud of their children about three hundred years after the monsters gained their freedom. Their dust was spread onto one of the plants Asgore had grown for Toriel as a present. It’s still in Asriel’s possession on his desk. They are remembered very fondly by the population as good and wise rulers.

_Sans_  
Sans owns a casino and gambling parlour where he offers a variety of pachinko and slot machines to play on, to monsters but especially to human tourists visiting Ebott. Through a secret entrance in his office, it's possible to access a staircase to a secret underground gambling hall where patrons can make illegal bets on sports and fighting rings, play card games for money, and so on. It has a very speakeasy atmosphere, although there's only a small selection of alcohol and foods since he doesn't want to compete with Grillby. They consider each other friends and have an agreement to stay out of each other's business, complimenting each other instead of fighting. Both like to visit each other’s establishments to wind down. 

Any human who plays in his cellar rooms can play on credit. If they fail to pay up, they can pay off their debts by entering a contract with him to become an advocate and influencer for the monsters to work it off. For this, Sans especially likes to grant large credits to people who he knows to have good connections to lobbyists, politicians or other influential people in the human world. Like this, the casino is used to further the case of the monster’s outside of Ebott and Sans and the king deliberately cooperate on this. Some of the victims who tried to speak out about this kind of blackmail have vanished under mysterious circumstances. Nobody is entirely clear who gave the order for this.

He enjoys having his own establishment in spite of the extra work it causes him, since it matches his prankster nature. Deep down though, he’s dissatisfied with the bad rep and status monsters have among humans, and he wishes they could just have peace and enjoy food and some bad jokes together. 

_Papyrus_  
Papyrus works various odd jobs in Sans’ casino; cleaning, selling drinks and snacks, repairing the slot machines and so on, though mostly he’s in the cellar calling the bets and stakes at the gambling tables. His loud voice and natural enthusiasm serve him well in this role and as a result, many monsters consider his volume and odd statements to be a result of his work, a quirk he can’t quite shake. This means he gets a lot more positive attention and casual friendships, which leaves him relatively happy in his position, although he much like Sans often struggles with their crooked way of life. He’ll be very enthusiastic to help Frisk with their mission to free the monsters.

Thanks to this change, he's not as desperate for friendship or attention and has little interest to be in the guard. Since his line of work can still require fighting capability when guests get rowdy and he does enjoy nonlethal fighting, he trains a lot regardless in order to be able to keep the peace in the casino and protect his brother from retaliation. 

He knows Undyne thanks to Sans’ dealings with the king, and while they still became friends and sometimes train together, they're somewhat less close than in the main timeline. On the other hand, he gets along very well with Asriel and their closeness is at least part of the reason why Sans’ gambling business has such a prominent position in the monster’s underground dealings. 

_Undyne_  
Undyne is still the head of the “royal guard” and officially tasked with protecting the king. Unofficially the king is far stronger than her and needs no protection, and she acts as his assistant and enforcer to ensure the operations in Ebott run smoothly. Asriel raised and trained her and so she's one of the few people to know about Chara. Her strong sense of justice is often at conflict with the subterfuge, criminality and shady tactics the monsters employ. She deeply wishes she could just smash the humans who hinder their progress and be done with it; something she an Chara like to joke about. She can be curt and aggressive with human visitors, although she tries to hide her displeasure and act friendly for Asriel’s sake. 

As head of the guards/enforcers, she’s very prone to treating them like part of her actual family. The canine unit, 01 and 02, Knight Knight and Whimsalot in particular are close to her, though there are other monsters that act less overtly in the name of the guard that she’s also close to. Her primary relationship though is with Alphys. 

_Alphys_  
As the royal scientist, Alphys is mainly tasked with research and development on mixing monster magic with human technology. Since their magitech devices are among the only completely legal income sources the monsters have when it comes to trading with the humans, this makes her position the single most important one in Ebott. The pressure of regularly coming up with something sellable leaves her constantly stressed to the point of being on the brink of a meltdown. 

On the plus side, she never had to experiment with souls or try to come up with alternative ways of breaking the barrier, so the amalgamation don't exist and the lack of this burden leaves her generally a little more stable. Because of this, she's not as isolated, is still close friends with Bratty and Catty, and has been in a romantic relationship with Undyne for a while. Her friendship with Mettaton is better as a result as well, as she finished his body and regularly upgrades him still.

With slightly better access to human media, her nerdy interests could flourish, although here she’s a fan of the budding genre of animation in general, since anime in particular doesn’t exist yet. She also has a weakness for science fiction movies and likes to watch these two genres in the local monster cinema with her girlfriend or her friends. If she’s too tired or stressed to leave her lab, she’ll listen to radio dramas that also include science fiction elements.

_Mettaton_  
Mettaton was explicitly created as a way to bridge the gap between humans and monsters. As a humanoid robot with the personality of an entertainer, Asriel hopes he'll be able to gain popularity among humans as well and help sway the public opinion on monsters into a more positive reaction. In this timeline, everyone is aware that Mettaton is a ghost possessing a robotic body and there is no secrecy around his origins or nature. He runs a radio show together with Napstablook, writes articles and columns for newspapers and is frequently acting in theatre productions and singing in live shows. He'll take almost any opportunity for entertainment and representative work and has managed to score interviews with human reporters, although due to the lack of television and the internet, his influence remains somewhat regional. He hopes to be able to star in a cinema production soon in order to spread his popularity and influence further. 

When Frisk becomes a member of Asriel’s household and begins to be groomed as a future ambassador, he will frequently take them along to his ventures, to teach them how to be charismatic and effectively work a crowd.


	5. Dancetale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In preparation, here are more headcanons!
> 
> [You can regularly vote on what I should write next on my Tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)!

Another AU headcanon overview. This one is a little shorter though, since it’s in many ways closer to canon than the other ones - both in terms of actual game canon and dancetale canon, although I’ve still taken some liberties of course, haha! 

**Point of divergence:**  
When Chara and Asriel are in the human village, Asriel is reluctant to hurt the humans attacking them but doesn't just stand there and take it. He evades and allows Chara a little bit more control so they won't be struck, while he himself uses anything he can think of to better evade - that ends up being the dance lessons he received as a kid. They and one of the humans they're fighting manage to establish a connection very briefly by taking step and counterstep. Thinking that a peaceful solution might be possible after all, they aren't quite as wary anymore and don't notice another human sneaking up behind them. They're struck in the back and the moment of connection with the other human shatters. They drag themselves and Chara’s body back like they did in canon, and tell Asgore and Toriel anymore about their experiences before they die. 

Asgore and Toriel have a huge fight like in canon, but wishing to honour their dead children's final statements they attempt to bridge their differences by trying to synchronise via dance. Since intent is everything in an encounter, they manage to gain an understanding for each other, tempering their respective rage and grief. As a result, Asgore doesn't declare war on humanity and Toriel doesn't leave. 

They still have many differences but are able to keep working together. They decide to teach the monsters dancing in encounters as a way to connect to others and to enhance understanding, empathy, respect, and love between the dance partners. They hope that with this, they might be able to sway future humans into helping them break the barrier, and regain a place in the world once they get out. Toriel also agrees that they should stay underground and wait instead of leaving as soon as they have a first soul, in order to better prepare for their time outside. 

**Differences in the plot:**  
By the time Frisk falls, most monsters are born with the ability to dance. It has become an instinctive part of their soul like love, hope and compassion. Each monster specializes in a certain style of dancing and has a matching type of “soul music” that can be heard when in an encounter, remixing into an overarching song. This song can vary depending on the monster’s mood and the current situation, as well as the general mood of the encounter. Older monsters have gained a style an soul music over time through training with other monsters. Humans can gain the ability this way as well. If the two partners are compatible or willing to work on overcoming their differences, the song and dance will be harmonious and mix into a beautiful combination of the different styles. If they are not compatible or unwilling to compromise, the song and dance will be dissonant and feel uncomfortable or even hostile. 

In the Underground, a guard unit is permanently stationed in the ruins to alert the royal couple in case a human falls and Toriel regularly spends time there for this purpose too. She personally guided all six humans through the underground to let them dance with as many monsters as possible, taking as much time as possible. As a result, the encounters were much more positive and most of the humans were less violent and decided to help the monsters instead of harming them. Most chose to stay and grow up and old in the Underground after having become fond of the monsters, allowing the monsters to collect their souls after their natural deaths. Only the blue soul chose violence and was brought to Asgore by the guard and Toriel. They first tried to imprison this child to see if they could change them with patience but they escaped, murdered several more monsters and were then defeated by Asgore. Both Asgore and Toriel took this hard, but even Toriel agreed she saw no other way to solve the issue. 

Frisk is the last human to be guided through the Underground. While Toriel keeps them safe and does her best not to leave them alone, Flowey manages to speak with them here and there while Toriel is distracted, trying to feed them specifically selected information to create distrust against the other monsters, insisting they're not as peaceful as they present themselves. 

**Characters:**  
_Flowey_ : Still a golden flower, no dance style  
Without a proper soul and trapped in the body of a flower, Flowey has no dance style and no soul music. The fight with him proceeds as it does in the canon game, while Frisk's and the human souls provide the music during these encounters. He shows a curious mixture of dances types based on the human souls in his fights. Only when he turns back to his original form as Asriel is he able to waltz again. He and Frisk share a dance before Asriel breaks the barrier, during which they create a moment of great understanding between them. This ultimately helps him come to terms with his fate better, although he still chooses to stay in the mountain in the end. 

_Frisk_ : [ Ballet ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg)  
Frisk doesn’t know how to dance when they fall Underground, but as they resonated with Chara on the golden flower, they gained the ability to draw on some of the knowledge Chara learned from the Dreemurs before their death. They’re still initially not very good at dancing and slowly come into their style as they make their way through the Underground with Toriel’s help. Their journey here takes much longer than it originally did, as they spend so much time practicing their dancing with other monsters. The exact amount of time depends on the route taken; on a positive neutral or full pacifist route, they will take the longest. The more violent they are, the shorter their journey will be. If they are violent, their dance style will also fade and they will show more of Chara’s modern style. 

_Chara_ : [Freestyle/Modern ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfnRT46bpMY)  
Chara didn’t know how to dance either when they fell Underground. They began having lessons together with Asriel when Asgore and Toriel thought they might grow up as a co-ruler of the monster kingdom and felt they should prepare them in terms of etiquette as well as knowledge, but they always had trouble with the formal and reglemented waltzes they were taught. As Frisk learns to express their own style, they too get the opportunity to see how much styles have changed since their death. On a violent run, they will experiment with and express their style until it overtakes Frisk’s, while on more peaceful routes they will inject some of their modern moves to enhance Frisk’s ballet, being a more positive and supportive influence.

_Sans_ : [Hip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hqp0tai_qs) [Hop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W8M9SDY_-0) [Style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEGpYVK_c)  
More often than not, he’s too lazy to dance so it’s rare for anyone to catch him doing it. Or at least that’s what he’s saying. In truth, he has some hangups about dancing and feels shy about his style. He secretly wonders if he’s “cool enough” for a style like hip hop because he’s more of a goofy dude. This used to be a problem he overcame in his youth, but it flared up again after he lost his drive when he learned about the resets. Dancing with Frisk at Toriel’s insistent begging (as she is one of the few people who has seen him dance) helped him a little with his feelings, even though he was initially ambiguous about helping them since he viewed them as the source of his renewed issues. On the surface, he takes his time finding back into his dance. 

_Papyrus_ : [Latin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9qkM_UTgDY)  
Papyrus would dance all day everyday of you let him. He's very physical and enjoys moving, so it's a perfect additional hobby for him next to fighting (which he still enjoys even now that it's part of a dance) and puzzle construction. He can have issues finding partners to dance with though, as many monsters find his energy overwhelming and this difference can create dissonance in an encounter with him. Only Undyne can keep up with him. He's also one of the few monsters able to get Sans to dance. The brothers enjoy practicing together in spite of how different they are. 

_Toriel & Asgore_: [Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1o31fsZxCc)  
Toriel and Asgore have a very different relationship due to the fact that their biggest disagreement didn't lead to their separation. In many ways, the fact that they were able to reconcile after something so drastic strengthened the foundation of their relationship, but on the other hand they are also more willing to disagree with each other since they trust their own ability to make up again. They bicker and even fight frequently, but never to the point of serious trouble. As a result, they are excellent dancers since they get a lot of practice. Since they are still together and had a way to work through their grief via dance, they are much less broken and their political savvy and combined intelligence is a force to be reckoned with. 

_Alphys_ : [Anime choreography ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5G5bD2Do-k)  
Alphys is really invested in anime and Japanese idol pop songs and her dancing reflects these styles most closely. She can be a little stiff in her movements out of self-consciousness, but when she truly feels comfortable and safe with her dance partner, she'll let loose and show an amount of flexibility and grace few people would have thought she had. Her soul music will always sound upbeat and cheerful, but the lyrics can be depressing depending on her mood, a deceptive dissonance. This can also sometimes prevent her from dancing since she worries that others will judge her on the music that her soul radiates. During the time where she hides what she did to the amalgamates, she doesn't dance at all out of fear that through enhanced understanding, others will learn of what she did. 

_Undyne_ : [Capoeira](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XiyENUL_kA)  
Undyne’s style is more fighting than dancing and that's just how she likes it, even though she likes her ace poses too. She likes the dramatic movements that allow her to feel like an anime heroine, but at the same time she has a pragmatic streak and wants her dances to serve a purpose beyond understanding and flare. As the captain of the guard she's always on the lookout for ways to not only defuse conflicts but also for ways to fight if necessary and her style reflects this. 

_Mettaton_ : [Contemporary/Jazz ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZYvud_ngY)  
Mettaton is all about that flair. In a world where dance is one of the most important aspects of monster interaction, he thrived. He still wants to be an entertainer for humans too, but since he also dances with a lot of monsters he gains an understanding for how important he is to monsters as an entertainer far earlier. As a result, he's less eager to abandon them and takes his role to inspire monsters and give them hope and something fun to watch much more seriously. In return, monsters love him even more than they already do in canon. His relationship with Alphys is more strained on the other hand since he's insulted (and hurt) that she won't dance with him anymore in the wake of the amalgamate incident, which he doesn't know about. 

_Muffet_ : [Tarantarella/Tap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trCrFGUdHNw)  
Muffet tap dances, using her many legs and ability to move fast as a spider to enhance the dance steps. A lot of monsters find her rapid way of moving unsettling, but those who like spiders or tap dancing will see the beauty and skill in her movements. She often dances with her clan, all spiders synchronising their movements to achieve stronger bonds and social cohesion among them. 

_Grillby_ : [Firedance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0W0ZV-6N4)  
A lot of his patrons would be interested in dancing with him, but Grillby tends to be quiet and more closed off, so he doesn't dance very often. If he does, it's mostly with people he already considers friends and feels close to. He would be willing to dance with Sans, but he knows Sans feels shy about it, so he never asked. When they get to the surface, they finally dance together and strengthen their friendship. 

_Nice Cream Guy (Harvey)_ : [Jive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KChBpxOA1M)  
Harvey is very confident about his dancing and loves inviting lots of different monsters to dance with him. His generally positive attitude makes him a popular when it comes to dancing too, so he tends to do it a lot. Among the bunny monsters, many also like him to help out their kids since he’s very encouraging and supportive, and knows how to help more insecure dancers have fun with what they’re doing. This leads to him having lots and lots of friends and acquaintances that he gets along well with. 

_Burgerpants (Tom)_ : [Interpretative with Jazz Hands](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vnMdFmZ3P8)  
Tom is the exact opposite of Harvey. He’s incredibly insecure and shy about his dancing and tends to avoid it most of them, even though it makes him feel lonely. There have been incidents in his past where he felt humiliated about his dance style and he has an ambiguous relationship with it as a result, since it’s not as ‘cool’ as he’d like it to but it’s also what’s in his soul. He’s only slowly coming to terms with this.


End file.
